Battery cable to alternator......

[pirinolsky]

Hello, I have a 2000 Explorer Sport, 2 Door. I noticed that my battery gauge started getting lower and lower on Friday. On Saturday morning while running an errand, the gauge went all the way down about 5 blocks from my house. The lights shut off, the radio and console all went dead as well. I swapped the battery from a crown vic and the battery gauge did the same. Today I looked into it and saw that the battery cable that connects to the alternator was completely corroded and I pulled on it and it just broke off.

Obviously I need to replace the battery cable, just dont know if the cable that connects to the alternator is the positive or negative one. I saw on the auto zone website the pos and neg cables for sale, but I also saw a harness with a lot of connections, which I assume replaces the WHOLE assembly. Is it best to do the whole thing, or just the pos and neg battery cables.

I only see corrosion on the cable going to the alternator, so I would like to only replace that one. My question again is this. Is it the positive or negative one?

Also, I see that the following links show the cables branching off. I heard that they might branch off more than shown, but I dont know if that is true or not. If you know, please let me know if there is additional parts I need to get and if so, what are they. Thanks so much in advance.

This is the link to the negative cable.
http://www.autozone.com/autozone/pa...ring=search&itemIdentifier=296117_82191_7849_

This is the link for the positive cable.
http://www.autozone.com/autozone/pa...ring=search&itemIdentifier=296118_82195_5977_

 

[ranger7ltr]

Are you referring to the red lead to the back terminal on the alternator?

That would be a positive +12 volt lead coming from the battery... The reason the positive battery cable has multiple leads is that there are at least 3 sources under the hood the positive cable must supply power.

The alternator is one, the mega-fuse is two, and the starter solenoid is the third connection I can think of without looking at my truck...

Frankly if the alternator power lead had enough corrosion on it to eat through it I would replace them all at the same time...You could run a single lead to the alternator back to the positive battery terminal and attach it to the post clamp but I wonder about the corrosion throughout the rest of the harness...

 

[pirinolsky]

If I understand you correctly, you're saying replace the entire positive battery cable, right? Or do you mean replace the entire harness, like the one shown in this link?

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/pa...6?counter=5&itemIdentifier=431984_77220_5977_

 

[ranger7ltr]

Not the link you sent...

That is the ground cable harness... I was referring to the positive harness I would replace...

Unless, of course, your ground cables look as bad as the positive cable that corrosed through...

 

[pirinolsky]

Thank you so much for the info. I had my buddy look at it n he told me to replace the terminal to the alternator. N I had to replace the alternator because the pos cable practically welded itself to the bolt n ruined the bolt. I did it all myself. Truck runs great now